


Cleaning Up

by agdhani



Category: Constantine
Genre: Gen, Thursday Tropes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-01
Updated: 2015-02-01
Packaged: 2018-03-10 01:27:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3271694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agdhani/pseuds/agdhani





	Cleaning Up

The millhouse was always cluttered. Trinkets and baubles, books and scrolls, vials and bowls and boxes of so many magical ingredients that Zed wondered how John ever managed to find anything, let alone kept track of what he did and did not have. She doubted she would ever understand any of it or now what most of it did, but that was John’s specialty, not hers. Hers was entirely in her head, and she was content to let John do what seemed the harder part to her. His was certainly the more dangerous job of the two.

With Chas still in New York visiting his daughter, not due back for another day or two as far as she knew, and John off attending trouble God knew where, Zed had taken it upon herself to tidy up. She wouldn’t touch the magical accoutrement, it was not worth the risk of harm or of angering John. But there were empty glasses and whiskey bottles, ashtrays and other objects full of butts and ashes, occasional plates, bowls, or half eaten containers of take out which John often did not bother to dispose of or clean himself, at least not in a timely manner. Though she did not consider herself domestic, Zed did not mind doing this now and then, even if John did not notice. Sometimes he needed looking after. It made her happy to do it for him.

There were also the occasional article of clothing to be found. A shoe beneath the sofa. A shirt slung over the back of a chair. Socks balled and tossed into a corner near the trash bin, as if part of a failed attempt to make a basket there. And amidst the coffee table clutter, where the forest of empty bottles, empty glasses, and cigarette dregs grew the thickest, one of his ties, still knotted, yanked over his head rather than untied and tossed so that its tail had landed in a bowl thick with ashes. With her hands already growing full, Zed slipped the black fabric noose of it over her head, wondering if the comparison to a noose had anything to do with why John always wore one. Another empty bottle was tucked between her arm and her stomach, and she headed off towards the kitchen to deposit her haul when the millhouse door opened above.

“Welcome home, John,” she called.

Her welcome was met with good-natured laughter, making her smile and hurry to put her armload upon the counter. “God, I hope I’m not him.”  
“Chas! You were not due back until tomorrow I thought…”

He smiled when she emerged from the kitchen, dressed in black jeans, a white tee shirt, barefoot, her hair drawn back and tied behind her head, John’s tie loose and askew about her neck. Unmade-up, obviously in the midst of a cleaning spree judging by the state of the room, she was still a sight to behold and he was glad he’d decided to come home early.

“It was either that or deal with Renee’s parents,” he chuckled. “John out saving the world alone?”

“He ordered me to bed-rest…” Zed rolled her eyes and came back into the room, closing the distance between them but still remaining a respectable distance away. Split from his wife or not, his heart was with his family. Zed had enough complications in her life to seek out another one…no matter how powerfully that complication pulled at her.

Chas smirked. “Which I can see you’re obeying…”

“I can only take so much of this.” She gestured around the room, indicating the unnecessary clutter rather than John’s version of organization. She grabbed for another empty whiskey bottle from the coffee table but Chas, hand closed around her wrist, staying her.

“I can’t blame you for that…but I think I have a better distraction for you.” He caught the loose end of the tie and wrapped it loosely about his fist.  
“Wha…?” she began to protest, the bottle forgotten, her heart now pounding within her breast.

“Come with me…” he tugged the tie, smiling, encouraging her to follow, “you will see.” They reached the bottom of the stairs. “I think you’re going to like this…”

Zed smiled. Whatever it was, if it was from Chas, she was sure he was correct…even if she kept that thought to herself.


End file.
